He was just a kid back then, 23 years old and fresh out of the U.S. Army.

He also was happy to have the job, even though it paid a whopping $1.65 an hour.

Wallace From didn't really care about that, because the job involved something he had always loved — major league baseball.

"I was a real nut baseball fan," From said, "and they needed somebody to do it."

And so, during the first two seasons of the Minnesota Twins' existence, From ascended to his position in the press box at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington and did his job.

Nobody has done it since. Nobody will ever do it again.

"I was the only dude doing the work," said From, now 76 and a St. Cloud resident for the last 48 years.

The work was definitely a period piece: From is the first, last and only person ever to telegraph the play-by-play of Minnesota Twins games from the Met.

His description — of each pitch, each play, and even how the wind was blowing — was then converted into a simulated broadcast, done with sound effects by an announcer sitting in a studio on the East Coast.

"I sent play-by-play to Boston," From said. "They'd wait like two innings before they'd start broadcasting. It was sent overseas to Armed Forces Radio."

In baseball's earlier days, broadcasts were done off a telegraph feed because technology and expense didn't always allow for live broadcasts.

It's one of the quirky vestiges of early broadcast history — and a unique niche for From, who was part of it.

"Sure, when I think back on it," From said. "As a young dude, I didn't think much of it."

From was born and raised in tiny Ortley, S.D. (2010 Census population: 65), the youngest boy in a family of 15 children.

"I have seven brothers and seven sisters," he said. "Of the eight boys, all eight were in the military, and five were in World War II. I had eight brothers-in-law, and all eight were in the military."

He also grew up a baseball fan, even though the nearest major league team was three states away.

"Oh, big time," From said. "That's how I knew it all."

During that era, the only major league team west of the Mississippi River was the St. Louis Cardinals. They were the closest team to Ortley until 1953, when the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee.

"We'd sit and listen to World Series games in school," From said. "A lot of it was Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees."

From's favorite? "Yankees," he said. "And I had a lot of company back in the late '40s, early '50s."

From joined the Army in 1957 and served two years as a radio operator and teletype operator. Those skills got him a job with Western Union in Minneapolis after his discharge in 1959.

"It entailed sending messages by teletype," From said. "You'd cut tapes of messages, and they'd get transmitted all over the U.S.

"I went to work for Western Union in August of 1960. The next summer they needed someone to send (Twins game descriptions), and they asked if I would try it."

From was more than happy to give it a shot. That was 53 years ago, but the memories are still fresh.

"Out there at the ballpark, they had a teletype machine set up there in the press box," From said. "I'd ride up in the elevator with (radio broadcaster) Halsey Hall, (who was) smoking a cigar about as big as a billy club."

His first game "might have been the Yankees," From said. "I knew all the players. That really helped."

Even so, it was a challenge.

"I had to keep the box score, too," he said. "The first time I did it, they sent me out with another guy. The fellow I was with — well, he was having girlfriend problems.

"About the fifth inning he said, 'I've gotta go.' He headed out of the press box and left me alone. But I made it through all right."

From's telegraph feed went to the studio in Boston, where the game re-enactment took place.

"They broadcast the game right from that," he said. "I'd give them the weather forecast before the game, if the wind was blowing from right field at 5 mph. They'd embellish it right from the tape.

"I was just doing the dirty work. Somebody else was doing the embellishment out there."

From, meanwhile, was anchored to his teletype machine and to his seat — literally.

"You could never leave your spot. You literally couldn't," said From, who recalled a 40-something Sid Hartman taking pity on his immobility and fetching him a drink. "Even like where they'd score 5-6 runs in an inning. It got pretty hectic there."

From telegraphed a handful of games in each of the Twins' first two seasons (1961 and 1962), but after that point the re-enactment concept had become outmoded.

"I'm not sure they did any after that," From said. "I think that was an old-fashioned way of doing it, a cheaper way."

From worked for Western Union in Minneapolis until 1966, when he moved to St. Cloud to enroll at St. Cloud State. He graduated with a biology degree and has worked and lived here since.

From remarried after his first wife Karen died of cancer in 2000. He and his second wife Beverly still pay attention to sports, but that's usually youth soccer or Northwoods League baseball.

"I keep up with the St. Cloud Rox," said From, who attends a dozen or so games each season.

Major league baseball from the early 1960s, meanwhile, is just a vestige of the past. But From will always have those telegraphed memories.

"The first time I did that sending of the ball game," From recalled, "the boss sidled up to me the next day and said, 'You did a real good job yesterday'."

Nobody did it better. Nobody ever will.

This is the opinion of Times sports editor Dave DeLand. Contact him at 255-8771 or by email at ddeland@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @davedeland. Join him for a live chat from noon-1 p.m. Thursdays at www.sctimes.com